Dr. Darden, what exercises could replace the nautilus hip/back machine?
Also, I plan on implementing negative chins into my routine, would you recommend 1 set of numerous reps of about 10 seconds each or 1 set of 1 negative rep of 30 to 60 seconds?
Thx in advance, Dan
The Nautilus Hip & Back Machine: There still is nothing that compares to it.
I like alternating heavy negative-only chins and 1-time down in 30-60 seconds.
It’s ashame those machine are so rare
I will alternate the chins
Thx again
The Nautilus Duo - Hip & Back makes hip thrusts look Paleopathetic!
Why do you think another company like Hammer hasn’t put one out ?
Hammer made one some 25 years ago, but it didn’t work well. Perhaps the reason is the range of movement must be near 180 degrees, and levers don’t function well in those extremes.
Years ago I was going to get a hip and back for my wife to use to work her glutes etc but she said it hurt her lower back so I didn’t get one. I thought it would have been a great machine for women wanting to work the glutes with out having to do squats. Turned out light weight squats suited her better.
Scott
The hip and back has a huge footprint which would have taken up half my machine space.I found one of the Nautilus home hip and back machines for next to nothing but she didn’t like that either.
Scott
When I was in my early 20’s I was coaching basketball at a rural high school and didn’t have access to a good gym. I was a firm believer in Nautilus machines but given that I didn’t have any I was forced to adapt. My father owned a machine shop so we built a couple of plate loaded knock offs of the hip and back. We didn’t use the duo-poly action but simply had a single pad and lifted with both legs at the same time.
The machines had more friction than I wanted so I wound up doing the positive myself and my training partner manually applied significantly more resistance on the negative. I made unbelievable progress on my vertical jump during that time. I bought a Nautilus Hip and Back later when my son was playing basketball with the idea that I’d try a similar experiment with him but I didn’t have room for it where I was living at the time. I still have it stored away and I’m thinking about reworking it and using it for the 30-10-30 technique. I would install bearings to reduce friction and fuse the movement arms so I could lift using both legs at the same time. I never did like the duo-poly part of that machine.
I made a make shift hip and back with a wooden cam bolted to an arm on an old workout bench with plates hanging loose on a rope. It’s funny when I think back at all the make shift machines I made in the early days . I recall tearing apart an old jungle Jim to get metal to make a pullover. About half way through I gave up on it. I didn’t have a camera then or I’d have taken some pictures of them.
Scott
I would like to install an akinetic bar on my Nautilus Duo Hip & Back!
During the online Resistance Exercise Conference, there was a short segment where a trainer (Skyler Tanner) did a demo showing how you could use a Medex leg extension machine to do hip thrusts. He suggested that the fall off cam on the leg extension addressed the issue that Bill DeSimone had with the hip thrust exercise, namely that when done with a barbell, the resistance curve is all wrong. I wonder if that might have some utility for some of you?
Also, I see that Rogers has a machine in the Pendulum line called a Reverse Glute Ham machine. The movement reminds me of what happens in the Nautilus Hip and Back, except you extend both legs at the same time, rather than alternating legs.
Then there is also the Gluteator, which seems to be gaining some popularity.
Dr. Darden, what about the Nautilus Super-Geared Hip and Back? I used one at Roger Schwab’s place years ago. It was an intense exercise and seemed to work the targeted muscles really well. Why did they discontinue it and switch to the Duo Hip and Back model?
Nautilus also made a 2ST hip extension that had a fused movement arm. I personally prefer to do the exercise with both legs at the same time. Has anyone used the Nautilus Glute Drive machine? Which is essentially a machine version of the hip thrust.
In the early to mid 1970’s the gym I went to had three Nautilus machines:
The Nautilus Super Geared Hip & Back had a huge footprint. The Dup-Poly version was half the size.
I liked the 2ST Hip & Back with the fused movement arm.
There is the BB-across-the-hips exercise, that is all the rage with ladies here in Houston (and I presume elsewhere). 1) They spend 5-10 min, just getting set up, 2) they use way too much weight, and 3) the ROM is pathetic.
The last couple of years, I’ve combatted MAFAD with Glute Pulls. I use a low pulley with rope handle connection. With knees bent and back slightly arched, I concentrate on using glute contraction to pull the upper body to vertical. Then a squeeze at the top and slow negative. It’s worked wonders!!!
Years ago I decided to make my own Nautilus-like pullover machine out of wood, steel, heavy duty industrial belts, and bearings. I created two cams by gluing two 3/4" pieces of plywood together under 600# of barbell plates and then carving the cams. Back then I worked in the same building as Ken Hutchins (in fact, he had me review one of his SuperSlow writings before he published it). Ken convinced me to replace the bushing bearings in my Bohicalus Pullover machine that I had originally used with needle bearings to reduce friction considerably. One thing led to another and I have since modified my Bohicalus Pullover machine such that a lot of different exercises can be done on it from leg presses to pulldowns to bench presses to deadlifts, shrugs, presses, etc. In addition, the way I created the “weight stack” allows me to change when the maximum load or torque occurs in some exercises like the leg press, calf raise, pulldown, etc.
I see the ladies use a leg ext machine to do hip thrusts
Is it possible to see a pic of the homemade wood, steel pullover machine?
I’m having trouble even picturing that!!